I knew about the atom bomb, I knew it was dropped to stop a long drawn out war to claim every individual island of Japan, I knew that it immediately ended thousands of lives instantly like turning off a switch. I say western readers, but I can only speak from my own experience of history lessons taught in the UK. This story is an important piece of modern literature, in the same vein as the war poetry of the frontline soldiers of World War 1, and it provides a unique insight into the domestic situation in Japan at the end of World War 2 and the impact of the atomic bomb being dropped that is not familiar to western readers. Junji Ito may provide a visceral and terrifying supernatural horror experience on a graphic novel page, but Keiji Nakazawa’s story is real, that is the most disturbing thing of all. It is a passionate and emotive piece of anti-war literature, and one of the most deeply disturbing horror stories I have read. This graphic novel tells the semi-autobiographical story of the author Keiji Nakazawa and his childhood experience of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. I just sat there with tears in my eyes processing what I had just read. When I finished reading Barefoot Gen I did not have any words to say. Japan is the only country in the history of the world that has had an atomic bomb used against it in war. ‘Gen is my alter ego and his family are just like my own.’
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May 2023
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